Reply To: Reading the Beach

[BenConsidine]

This is actually epic! Great vid I’d never thought of how applicable the cross over for beach analysis between fishing and surfing would be, super interesting haha

In the interest of ‘honourable crowd tactics’ haha one of the biggest things I speak to people about when they feel like they’r being paddled around in the lineup is definitely ‘looking busy’.

All too often I see surfers who maybe aren’t getting their fair share sitting in one spot, without a beach marker and waiting for the waves to come to them, as they may be getting swept out of position whilst also having other surfers take the inside position.

To many surfers there’s a subconscious ‘surfer analysis’ going on where experienced surfers especially, whether its right or wrong will have a look at the surfers in the lineup they may be able to paddle past. The key to ensuring this doesn’t happen in a lot of instances is looking busy, actively doing some strokes here and there to keep the inside position, looking out the back towards the horizon and not facing the other way towards the beach and generally maintaining a good eye on your surroundings. Surfers who look to be sitting still and letting themselves get swept away will often be taken advantage of, so this is something that may help some members in here potentially as well!!!